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Issue #5, 2004

It's Winemaking Season!
by Bill Reddy

There is nothing that excites winemakers more than the fall harvest. No matter if you make wine directly from grapes or from juices and concentrates everybody anticipates the new fall crop of grapes. This is also the time of year that wine kit manufacturers release new products and promotions which generates a lot of excitement.

Since we represent Winexpert and RJ Spagnols, the two major wine kit manufacturers, we have lots of new products to offer you. Here is just some of the things to look out for over the next couple of months.

• RJ Spagnols has released their Cru Select RQ 2005 line-up. Four outstanding wine kits released in restricted quantities once a month in January, February, March and April. Visit our Brewery Lane web site for more information. Winexpert Selection Limited Edition varieties for 2005 have not been released yet. We'll send you information as soon as it's available.
• Winexpert will be releasing five new wine kits over the next couple of months. Look for a German Muller Thurgau and Chilean Malbec in the popular Vintners Reserve 4-week kits. A South African Pinotage in the Selection International Series and a California, Santa Ynez Valley Syrah in the Selection Estate Series. The Estate Series Syrah brings an exciting new concept to winemaking by introducing the "Crushendo" grape skin pack, giving consumers the opportunity to make wines of intense fruit, tannin and oak. A New Zealand, Marlborough, Sauvignon Blanc will also be available in the the Selection Estate Series in late October.
• Winexpert will be running an in-store fall promotion. Visit our stores and enter your name for a chance to win a "Wine Country Escape" to Napa Valley. More prizes are available including trip for two to Niagra-on-the-Lake and Okanagan Valley. Visit one of stores to enter and for more detaisl. We will also be posting more information on our Brewery Lane web site over the next few days.

Bill has been an avid wine and beer maker for over 30 years. He is an owner of Brewery Lane and edits the Brewery Lane Brew News. He can be reached at billr@brewerylane.com

Sale and Clearance Centre

Visit our new Clickabrew Sale and Clearance Centre. Check out our Feature of the Month Wine Kits with special pricing. You'll also from time to time find great deals on discontinued and clearance items. This month we are featuring Vintners Reserve Bergamais and Piesporter plus a selection of Orchard Breezin' and Island Mist wine kits and Barons Premium Beer Kits.

New Items!

Vino del Vida World Tour!
Tour the world with Vino del Vida. Eight new kits have been introduced to this popular line of wine kits. Fashioned after world famous regional styles these kits contain 9 litres of premium grape juice and concentrate to make 23 litres of wine. The additional 2 litres enhances the true-to-style regional characteristics of your wine kit.

Turbo Scrubber Bottle and Carboy Cleaning Tool
Turbo Scrubbers make cleaning your bottles, carboys, cornelius kegs, demijohns and other containers fast, easy and fun! They will fit into your drill so that you can power your way to clean in moments. The replaceable cleaning head is a flexible fabric that conforms to the shape of your container allowing you to effortlessly clean every inch. It also extends beyond the end of the frame to clean the bottom.

Buon Vino Super Jet Wine Filter The Mini Jet's big brother! If you do several batches of wine a year this is the filter for you. We carry a complete line of filter pads and parts for Buon Vino filters. You get three sets of filter pads FREE when you purchase any Buon Vino wine filter at Clickabrew. More information

You Asked Us

After sanitizing my bottles I have to rinse them with water. This seems like it’s defeating the purpose. Is there a better way?

I agree. You go through all the trouble of sanitizing and then you have to rinse with water which may contain contaminants. But fortunately there are no-rinse sanitizers available to solve this problem. The one I recommend is Oxy-San. This works great and is easy to use. Iodophor is also a very effective no-rinse sanitizer but you have to be careful to mix it to the recommended strength.

Synthetic Corks Replacing Natural?
by Bill Reddy

If you have been a wine drinker for a while it’s most likely that you have come across at least one bottle of tainted or “corked” wine.

Corks have been the traditional wine-bottle closure for about 300 years, and when they work well, they make about as good a stopper as anyone has invented. The cork is so enshrined in tradition that most of us cringe at the very idea of a quality wine closed with a beer cap or jug-wine cap.

But corked wine is such a serious problem that the wine industry is seriously looking at other alternatives. Here’s why:

Natural cork is all too often afflicted by a fungus called TCA, a chemical that imparts its flavour to wine and, basically, ruins it. If you've ever tasted a wine with a dank, mouldy aroma that reminds you of wet cardboard or a damp basement that's TCA, and the wine is said to be "corked." By some estimates, as many as one bottle of wine in 20 is tainted by the TCA fungus.

Crown caps and screw tops offer alternatives but they are not aesthetically pleasing. Synthetic corks seem to be the answer.

Nomacorc is a second generation synthetic cork. It’s the leading brand and is used by commercial wineries such as Lindemans of Australia. We have been using Nomacorcs recently and are very pleased with the results. There is no leakage and they insert and extract smoothly. Unlike natural cork, your bottles can be either stored upright or on a wine rack. But most importantly we found that our wines tasted fresher without any trace of taint. We will be using Nomacorcs exclusively from now on and highly recommend them.

For more information on Nomacorc visit their web site at www.nomacorc.com.

Tips for making wine from "scratch"

The season for making your home-made fruit and berry wines is fast approaching. You will be looking forward to getting out on a beautiful fall day and picking those fresh ripe berries needed to make that perfect wine. Here are a few tips that you should remember when making your wine from fresh fruit.

1) Pick only ripe berries. Freeze them and let them thaw before using. This will make juice extraction more efficient.

2) Do an acid titration test before adding the yeast. This will let you know if you need to make any acid adjustments. Acid levels that are too high or low can cause havoc with your fermentation.

3) Take a hydrometer reading. This will tell you if the sugar content is too high or low. High sugar content can inhibit fermentation while low sugar content will give you a wine that is too low in alcohol.

4) Add some grape concentrate. This will supply essential nutrients and give your wine more body, aroma and flavour.

5) Avoid the frustration of using unproven recipes. Use our Wild Berry Additive Kits . They contain full instructions with all the nutrients and acids necessary to make a great tasting wine in just six weeks! You still have to add the berries and sugar so the joy and satisfaction of making your own wine from scratch is still there. So let’s get out there and start picking!

Visit Clickabrew to learn more about our Wild Berry Additive Kits.

Last Month:

Last month our feature article was "Sulphite and Wine Kits". We also listed our most common wine kit questions and we had a great tip on avoiding bitter fruit wines. If you missed these or any other interesting articles you can view our back issues at http://www.clickabrew.com/newsletters.html.